After doing some more cleaning on the Pilot chassis i found some serious swiss cheese when i took the roof off. I have a bunch of .095 1 1/4 tubing but that's much thicker than the stock chassis thickness. Anyone know what the thickness is on the stock tubing so i can best match it when i start replacing tubing. Thanks Jay

Seriously none of you guru's have this info. I guess i'll hack some part of my frame up and take it to the tubing place.

Post here what you find then its in the database for the future, users will need to just search for Pilot and tubing and thickness I don't remember, your on the right track measure what you have, the factory tubing is cheap and thin, low quality, you will see this when you try to weld it heh, testament to Honda engineering you don't need .120 wall tubing.. after 20 years of abuse mine is holding up nicely!

I remember having a discussion with Eddy(SpeclEd) about it years ago. He said the 350s had a thicker tube in the roll cage and the attaching points were also a stronger design in the 350. I could not find the actual info so I was watching the thread for info. Sorry.

Gary

Yeah it's definately thin, i was suprised how thin when i was cleaning up some of the rust. But i know your not supposed to mix wall thickness's since they don't flex the same. Some tubes i'm going to take completely out, those i might use my .120 wall. Thought it was .095 but it's .120. It definately doesn't look like it'll be fun to weld. Looks to be the same thickness as exhaust tubing. The beauty of engineering i guess.

Wish I knew friend-I did a search here and coulnd't find anything on the thickness -I was surprised.

I believe its 060.

Oh, I also remembered from the earlier conversation that it is a mild steel so it will give some and can be bent back, normally without cracking. Chrome moly is a much harder or stronger grade and is more prone to cracking when flexed, or so I was told. Just info to pass along so when you purchase replacement steel, you will know. I am sure someone here has more info like this to pass along about this stuff, I am no expert.

Gary

If memory is correct (wish is rarely the case anymore) the FL400 is .065 and the FL350 is .085....

Now for my opinion, the FL400 thickness is ok if you only ride on Sand....
If you ride dirt, hardpack, trails, or race it is simply to WEAK...

I flipped mine at 40 or so landing on the roof on a rocky trail and the cage folded up like a pretzel...
(Had I gone over again it would have been messy....)

I have a chrome-moly upper cage on my LT Pilot, as I feel the driver space should NEVER be compromised
which was not the case with the stock upper cage...


Jay looking at your frame I'd say you would be better building it from scratch
As it is it scares the hell out of me........

Haha i haven't even taken pics of the scary parts yet. I won't be doing much patching , i'll mainly be replacing full tubes. My problem is the corners. I don't own a tubing bender so i'll be getting creative with corner bracing and such. I'm also going to be adding some bracing to the passenger compartment. I've rolled my other buggy a few times, it's no fun. Especially the time i crushed my arm. I'll definately be putting arm restraints and nets in this one, big fan of safety here.

It will prolly save you tons of time if you just buy a new upper roll cage. Odykid is selling one on ebay talk to himm about it.

Will a upper cage off a fl350 be modified to fit or will fit ?
just a thought and the fl350 should be heaver tubing

speedchaser

Cages are different Speed-I tryed it already-LOL

Odykid still has the frame too along with the upper rollcage-PM him and see if he'll work with you on pricing perhaps?

You could pick up a tubing bender that would do the job for a couple hundred bucks. You will end up having a much safer frame in the end and it will take WAY less time than trying to figure out how to brace it every which way. Speedchaser has a bender. Figure out what angles you need, have him bend them up and leave them wild so you can trim the pieces to fit.

... I have been there so many times on projects where I start off trying to save a buck and end up putting in 10X the time it should take and then end up redoing it anyway because it did not come out right.